


Disaster: Become Human

by adrunkgiraffe, Dim_shim



Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Crack, Hey guess who never thought she'd be writing a full on fic for this, Hurt and comfort, M/M, and guess who never thought she'd tag John Hunger/Ben Sisko On A Work, becoming human, crack that went too far
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-10
Updated: 2018-09-12
Packaged: 2019-06-08 02:58:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15233844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adrunkgiraffe/pseuds/adrunkgiraffe, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dim_shim/pseuds/Dim_shim
Summary: Ben finds an unconscious John Hunger floating out by the wormhole. Hilarity ensues.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Dim_shim](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dim_shim/gifts).



Ben couldn’t believe it. Not 2 weeks after they’d taken back the station and already he was leaving for a survey trip. He supposed it made sense, given someone had to check the wreckage of the mines put up by Rom, and Dax had been angling for a chance to investigate any changes in the Wormhole’s energy readings, but it still felt odd to be going. He kept tossing his baseball back and forth in his hands as he waited for O’Brien to say the defiant was ready enough that he could come on board. Even if they hadn’t seen any activity from the dominion in the past two weeks it still felt as though the instant he left the Dominion would try and take the station from him again. It was bad enough going down to Bajor. 

Even so, surveys had to be completed, and scientific curiosities sated. Sisko boarded the ship that had been his home for months, hoping against hope that this wasn’t the start of another bloody and grueling span of time. He would be half right. 

Soon after he sat down in his chair, Dax came by with a knowing yet sympathetic smile on her face. 

“Feels weird to come back here, doesn’t it, Benjamin?” She gently squeezed his shoulder with her hand.

“More than you know, old man.” Sisko shot back the retort, even voice giving away nothing of his nerves. He didn’t need to. Jadzia already knew they were there. She gave another squeeze and then sauntered to her station. 

“Well, it’ll only be a little while. And we won’t have to put up with with Garak’s whining this time, a definite plus.” She punctuated this last remark with a cheeky grin and a turn in her chair to face the screen. Nearby, Ensign Nog giggled almost imperceptibly. Despite not facing Worf, Sisko could swear the Klingon cracked up as well. 

“Small victories.” Despite himself, Sisko, too, couldn’t help but joke along.

The mission began, for the most part, normal. They collected spare parts of the mines to be studied in case they ever needed to implement that strategy again. They gave the wormhole as wide a berth as they could for the first half, but as they finished with the mines (going by the helpful instruction set given by Rom), they began to inch ever closer. Nothing much of anything happened until, suddenly, a fairly persistent beeping erupted from Dax’s console.

“What is it Lieutenant-Commander?”

“Sensors are reading a massive flux of Gamma Radiation from off the port bow, Captain.” The jokey-fun Dax had melted away to calm, scientific Jadzia, entirely focused on her monitor. “It seems as though there’s an object just floating at the tail edge of the wormhole producing it.”  
“What kind of object?” 

“Unsure as of yet captain.”

“On screen.” With that, the monitor centered in on a small pod. Or, what Sisko thought to be a pod. From this distance it could have been machine, organic, or even a large splotch on their sensors. The object was pitch black, but flecked with ribbons of green, red, and blue. It looked about the size of a human. At closer inspection, it was almost cocoon shaped.

“Any further data, Dax?” 

“The object doesn’t match any registered material, Captain. What’s more, preliminary scans show it to be some kind of liquid.” Dax’s words were quiet, half spoken to herself as if in a trance. To be fair, Sisko himself felt a little entranced by the object, with the shimmering lights coming out of an inky black, shifting constantly as if alive. 

“Interesting.” Sisko muttered. 

“Captain. I’m reading a life sign coming from the object. Human. Very faint.” That broke the trance. Someone was inside that thing?

“What?” 

“Someone must be within the black material. Suggest we pull the pod in with a tractor beam?” 

“By all means.”

And so Ben began a whole new line of anxious fiddling. Even in wartime, he was a curious explorer at heart like the rest of his crew. And besides, the gelatinous substance did remind him of the pooled consciousness of the Great Link, so he could justify this as recon. But above all he wanted to know what kind of human - if that really was a human - could be inside that cocoon. As soon as he got O’Brien’s confirmation that the pod was safely aboard, he gave Worf the helm and all but dashed to the decompression chamber, where Julian was already observing the pod.  
Or, what was left of it at least. It seemed that once the environmental controls turned on, and the gravity brought the pod down to surface, it had melted away to a puddle on the floor, the human concealed within now revealed. He was a rather lengthy man, pale, aged around 50 or so, vaguely handsome, salt and pepper hair, in a suit styled to the tastes of the 20th-21st centuries.

“Status, Doctor?”

“He’s still alive, but unconscious. His metabolic and heart rates have vastly slowed, as if he were in some kind of stasis coma. The liquid has lost the luster reported before we brought it in, but seems incredibly dense from what I can tell.”

“Is there any way we can wake him up, find out what he was doing out here?”

“I can most likely bring his vitals up with a stimulant but I would prefer not to until we’re in a more controlled environment where I can better monitor his condition.”

“Fine. He remains asleep, for now. Bring him to the sickbay until we can get back to the station. Have someone collect the remaining liquid, as well, and run as many scans on it as you can. I want to know what that is as soon as possible.”

“Understood, sir.”

“We’re about done with the survey for now, so we should be back at the station within the hour. Have him ready to wake up by then.”

“Yes, sir.” Bashir blanched a little at this, but made no comment. Sisko didn’t dislike the doctor, but they had clashed on this in the past. He supposed it was unfair to expect of medical officers the same ‘if it takes 8 hours, do it in 5’ attitude as engineering officers, but often in these situations it was hard to be patient, and Bashir’s...thoroughness could be a frustration.

\--

A little less than an hour later, he stepped back onto the station once again, closely following a biobed brought for the unconscious man. This morning, Sisko thought returning to the station would be the end of his anxiety for the day, but now he was buzzing with a whole new anxious energy. So many questions had to be answered but he knew if he asked them too fast he’d be left just as misinformed. Of course, none of this showed beyond a slightly elevated level of brusqueness with the crew, especially Bashir. 

Finally, after a strenuous ten minutes, the man was hooked up to an adequate number of monitors and able to be injected with a stimulant. His storm grey eyes fluttered open, and he groggily looked around the room. 

“You’re not...Merle…” he mumbled confusedly at Sisko. The bleary eyed expression on this man seemed both endearing and somehow instinctually wrong on some basic level that Ben couldn’t place.

“No. My name is Benjamin Sisko.” Though thrumming with energy, Sisko did his best to keep his voice at its lowest, softest register. This man had just woken up after who knows how many years in stasis. He was going to be confused. “What is your name?”

“John H...John.” 

“No surname?” Sisko prompted.

“I...no. I don’t have one.” There was a suspicious pause but again, Sisko had learned his lesson when it came to bedside interrogations, so he didn’t push it.

“We found you floating in a pod of unknown material just outside of a wormhole. Any memory of how you got there?”

“N..No...I shouldn’t even be here. Be...this...where am I?” John picked himself up a bit, confusion in his face quickly turning into panic. Julian managed to push him back down with a gentle nudge on the shoulder. 

“Calm down.” Bashir soothed. “You’re on space station Deep Space Nine, in the alpha quadrant. Does that make sense to you?” Bashir had come down and was looking deep into John’s eyes, searching them with medical focus. 

“No.” Even in delirious murmuring, the response came flat. Bashir turned to Sisko, concern obvious in his expression. Concern was usually obvious in Bashir’s expression.

“I suggest he stay here overnight. He may have some form of concussion or neurological damage from time spent in stasis. You can ask him a few more questions to keep him talking while I give him some basic once overs to check nerve functions, but he’ll need to be asleep if I have to give him any more intense examinations.” Similar to Jadzia, Bashir also alternated between a fun, naive social side and an authoritative medical side. Sisko knew that in this mode, he had no way to argue, so he nodded and narrowed down his mental list of questions. 

“What is the last thing you remember?” he began, taking a seat next to the biobed.

“I was...pursuing a ship. The starblaster I think it was called.” Sisko made a mental note to check on this in the files. “They were following after a material I had need for. Then suddenly a flash, and I was waking up in this...station.” It was very clear that John wasn’t telling the whole truth, but Sisko put pressing this off until the man was more lucid. Meanwhile, Bashir was shining a light in John’s eyes. The irises seemed to shift and glimmer under the light, undulating with the same bands of color as seen in the pod. It was almost hypnotic. 

“Were you pursuing this ship in the small pod we found you in?”

“No...the forces I had access to were far greater.” A chill ran down Ben’s spine at the cold pride in John’s voice. Bashir seemed equally perturbed, but went back to light brain scans. 

“What happened to separate you from these forces?”

“We both passed through some kind of barrier. I suppose my section of the forces got separated from the rest there, and the two just kept on going...without me.”

“And what was left of your ship went into some sort of stasis mode.”

“I suppose.” John shrugged, seemingly coming more and more to his senses with each question.

“Who is Merle?”

“I...I’m not entirely sure to be honest Mr. Sisko.” The Man’s politeness seemed genuine, and, like his confusion, sparked an odd mix of endearment and fear in Sisko’s heart. “I believe he’s one of the crewmembers aboard the Starblaster. He has contacted me many times up until now.”

“For what purpose?”

“Conversation mostly.” The simple answer confused and intrigued Sisko, but the look on Bashir’s face told him he didn’t have time to press further for now. 

“I’ll let you rest for now. Doctor.” Sisko nodded at Bashir. 

“I’ll let you know as soon as he’s ready to answer more questions, Captain.”

\--

The next morning, Bashir came in early to wake John up again and do a full physical. He had a suspicion that the captain would only wait so long to have his curiosity sated, so he had to be expedient to make sure his strange new patient was 1) functional and 2) not medically proven to be dangerous. 

Unfortunately, the physical presented more questions than it answered. To all scanners, John still read as human, but the resemblances stopped there. For starters, despite being quite sprightly and aware this morning, John’s metabolic and heart rates still read as low as your average coma patient. Second, his chest appeared to be pock marked with odd cracks, as if his skin were old clay. Then there were his irises from last night. Finally, and most surprising, was his blood. Though John passed the changeling test - much to Bashir’s relief - it was only because his blood didn’t come out red in the first place. Instead, a slow, black ichor oozed it’s way into the sampler. The ichor, like the pod and John’s irises, gleamed with the occasional stripe of neon. This at least explained his low rates, since there was no way this stuff went through the veins quickly, but it still didn’t explain who - or what - John was. 

Worst of all, John found nothing odd with his results.   
“Something wrong, doctor?”

“John...what species are you?”

“I believe I’m human...last I checked at least.” Bashir chuckled a bit but was faced with the possibility that this man might genuinely had to have checked if he was human recently.

“Are you quite sure? Because these results don’t seem to be...um...congruent with that.” Normally, Julian would be much more delicate with this. But something about how John was holding himself made the doctor suspect he already knew..

“Oh. I suppose that might make sense.” John’s chuckle affirmed these suspicions. “You see, I am a slightly enhanced version of my former self.” Julian froze up a bit at this. It was highly possible that- but he had never seen genetic enhancements on this level. What benefits could this even give someone?

“Is that so? In what way?” Bashir struggled to keep his voice light and conversational.

“It’s a bit difficult to explain, I’m afraid.” John kept chuckling as though at an inside joke only he understood.

“Try me.” Bashir leaned against a panel and crossed his arms, leaning his beanpole torso in conspiratorially. If this man really was a victim of experimentation like himself, Bashir wanted to help.

“Well, you see, I’m not just the man you see before you.” Classic dramatism of the enhanced. “I expand much further than this normally.” Slightly off kilter but still classic. “You see, Doctor Bashir. I am Everything.” On that last word, John’s voice seemed to multiply, his irises, blood sample, and the sample of goo from the pod (now in a glass jar to the side) all thrumming with an unknown energy.

With that, Bashir made a number of calls upstairs.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Questions are answered and a deal struck.

Sisko paced back and forth in the briefing room, looking anywhere but the suited man at the other end of the table. His mind raced with the vast swath of information and the attitude change in John. Was this man a threat? How much power did he have now that he was cut off at the source? Was this all just a trick by Q? Who were the people John was chasing? Should they help him get in contact with this “Merle” or not? 

Even if the last one was the affirmative, could they? He had personally checked history logs for Merle Highchurch and the Starblaster to no avail. 

“Okay. Take me through this one more time.” All of yesterday’s soothing was gone and replaced with what Dax playfully called the ‘Smoulder Voice.’

“I am a part of a being called the Hunger. I was searching for what I call the Light of Creation to sate this hunger of mine and grow larger. My consciousness must have been separated when I passed through that wormhole of yours.”

“And Merle and the Starblaster?” 

“They have been chasing after the Light themselves, I used them to track the light. Merle contacts me often enough that I know him well by now.”

“Any details you can give me to help me see if they’ve passed through here recently?”

“Will you help me find them or will you shoo them away?” John quirked an eyebrow challengingly.

“It depends.” Sisko’s voice was even.

“Fine. Merle is short. Dwarven I believe. With white hair, a big full beard, green eyes with small flecks of yellow and grey in them that kinda brighten when he laughs, tends to go shirtless, well sculpted for his age, pretty sure he has a margaritaville tramp stamp-” 

“That’s more than enough to go off of, John.” Ben interrupted before the man could continue any further with this diatribe. Did the man just not hear the words coming out of his own mouth?

“Oh.” John replied with earnest surprise. “Okay.”

“One last question, and please be honest with me, John.” Sisko tried to suppress the oncoming headache. “Why exactly should I help you?”

“To get me out of your hair? Or-” John wisely cut off his own dangerous joke. 

“And if doing so would go against my duty as a Starfleet officer?”

“I don’t think it would. From what i’ve absorbed off your database, your creed largely means upholding the status quo and not interfering more than you need to morally or for safety’s sake. I can’t speak for morality because I’m a bit...beyond the topic. But I don’t think I can pose a threat to you right now, and once I’m back with the rest of me I won’t be on this plane anymore. Also, what could be more natural than an organism who eats to grow?”  
“Valid points, until you said you were “beyond morality.” Sisko acquiesced a bit.

“In that case think of it this way - until I am gone, you’re stuck with a man who doesn’t understand humanity in the slightest. Since I am determined to get my form back with or without your help, teaching me the finer points of morality would be the wisest course of action for the future.” The playful satisfaction of John’s smile both drew Sisko in and pissed him off.

“Don’t attempt to play with me John. I’ve dealt with omnipotent beings who enjoy goading my sense of morality before, and they ended up very much punched by the end of things.”

“Duly noted. Still, as long as I’m here I would greatly appreciate some guidance. I haven’t held a human form for an extended period of time in a while, so I’m genuinely interested in learning.” John’s expression, though still mirthful, appeared genuine for the time being. Despite all his better judgement, Sisko couldn’t help but be pulled in a bit by John’s demeanor. The way he strung his words together was hypnotic on some basic level, just as the bands of light in his pupils were. 

“Fine.” Sisko nodded. “But. We’ll have a probationary run of this for the next month. You’ll be assigned quarters with a security detail outside. Only I, Bashir, Constable Odo, and Major Kira will be allowed inside, and if you leave it will be with one of us. Afterwards we’ll see if I trust you to roam the station on your own.”

“Fair enough.” The falsely dramatic annoyance at these terms was not at all charming, Sisko thought as he punched his badge to open up comms.

“Constable Odo. Let’s see if we can’t find Mr. John some quarters.”


	3. The arrangement

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bashir gets in trouble and John makes a deal

“Captain are you sure about this?” Odo asked for what felt like the 10th time on the way to John’s quarters. Kira herself had also posed this question before but had nodded solemnly after the 3rd time. Odo was, characteristically these days, harder to convince.

“Yes, Constable. I am” Ben was absolutely not sure about this but that had never stopped him before.

“Are you absolutely sure though? This man could pose any number of security risks.”

“I know, Constable.”  
“He could be a member of the Q collective, he could be an augmented Romulan, here to do some work that would solidify an alliance with the dominion, he could be a changeling-”

“Doctor Bashir already conducted a blood screening. He passed.”

“ONLY BECAUSE HIS BLOOD WAS PITCH BLACK, CAPTAIN.” Odo was getting exasperated to the point of yelling, but declined to do so.

“If I may, Captain, the Constable has a point.”

“One that I recognize, Major, but right now it appears that John isn’t lying to us. If he was, why tell such an outrageous story?”

“That’s not as comforting as you think it is.” Odo grumbled. “At best, it simply means the man is delusional.”

“He might be. However, the entire point of this exercise is to assess him as a security risk. So long as he is confined, we will be fine.”

Odo grumbled some more, flat mouth doing its best impression of a disgruntled turtle’s, but he didn’t say any more as they opened the door to reveal Julian playing chess with the risk in question. 

“Doctor.” Was all that came out of Sisko’s mouth. He was in shock. He knew the doctor was one for the humanitarian approach. He knew that this had often resulted in a sort of naiveté, only enhanced by Bashir’s attempts to push off any evidence of his own enhancements. But this. This was lunacy.

“Oh, Captain!” Bashir turned to face them with surprise and a little shame on his face. At least he had the good sense to know he’d done something wrong. Odo and Kira each avoided looking at this scene. It had been nice knowing Julian. They’d miss him. John’s expression was notably placid. 

“Care to explain what it is you’re doing, Doctor Bashir?” Sisko kept his voice even and calm, which had the desired effect of terrifying Bashir. Even with how much the man had grown in the last few years, and even with his enhancements, Bashir had a sort of youngness to him that made him incredibly susceptible to fear of Sisko. At least, outside of that professional focus which had always been there. So what if Sisko still used this to his advantage at times, it was mostly to protect the good doctor from more messes along the way than anything else. 

“Uhm. I came in to take a few follow up tests on John, and he expressed some boredom without anything to engage with, and since I happen to have a chess set in my room, I thought-”

“This is not a hotel, Doctor. If...John wants to ‘engage’ with something, he can search through the information database, or read something on the PADDs we gave him. He does not need the chief medical officer aboard the station to personally attend to him with a game of chess.” Sisko needed a last name for this man. Calling him John felt much too personal.

“Yes, but he seemed to want to practice his game, and to talk, and since the entire point of this exercise is to help him become more human in some way, I thought-” Bashir stumbled over his words.

“You’d put yourself, and possibly the rest of us, at risk?” Bashir didn’t seem to know how to answer that. To be fair, Ben was being a bit dramatic, but sometimes one needs to be. 

“Please Captain. Don’t blame the good doctor.” John suddenly spoke up. “I was complaining that the boredom was impinging on my mental state, and he very politely obliged me. My error.” There was a smug politeness to John that reminded Ben of another person on the station, which made sense of why Bashir might be so willing to socialize. 

“Very well. Doctor, I assume you are finished with your examinations?” Ben quirked an eyebrow, letting Bashir know he was off the hook, but barely. 

“Yes, Captain.” Bashir replied, quickly moving to leave the room.

“Don’t forget your chessboard, doctor.” John called after him.

“Keep it, I’ll pick it up after next visit.” Bashir answered back, not willing to make the embarrassing journey back into the room to collect it.

“Well then.” Ben straightened and turned to John. “John, I’m sure you remember Constable Odo, he will be giving a brief interrogation and one last test to ensure...certain aspects of your identity.”

“Very well. Fire away. Though I suggest we do something to pass the time during the questions. Are you any good at chess, Constable?” John gestured to the board invitingly

“Yes, but I’d rather get right to the questioning.” Odo waved him off. 

“Fine.” 

The interrogation passed slowly, with the Constable needling at every juncture, trying to get more details than John had previously given, trying to catch him in any unlikely or dubious parts of his story (of which there were many), at one point he tried to change directions and just get a last name out of the man, but John was more reticent to tell him that than anything else. The man was an odd mix of forthright and difficult, weaving his way through the sentences with as much skill as the Constable. It was one of few times Ben had ever seen someone so un-intimidated by Odo. 

They also asked some routine questions to see if he was familiar with any of their allies or enemies. They also asked him if he knew any Q’s. Nothing seemed to ring a bell. 

Finally, it was time for the last test. Odo explained that he would need skin contact for it to work, and then began to make his hand turn into goop. When nothing happened after a good (and awkward) 20 minutes, they stopped, confirmed at least that John wasn’t some changeling. 

As they were preparing to leave, Ben was struck with a thought. No plates or crumbs were found anywhere in the room. In a spurt of curiosity, he quietly checked the food replicator.

“Computer, access replicator logs.”

_Accessing….since last clearing of history, one (1) glass of room temperature water has been ordered from this terminal._

“When was the last history clear?”

_One week ago._

“Have you not eaten at all since we brought you here?” Ben asked, turning to John

“I do not need to eat, Captain.” John answered simply.

“What do you mean?” 

“Food isn’t a necessity for me. I haven’t had this form for very long, and it appears that it doesn’t get very hungry that often.” John chuckled at the irony of the statement. 

“Then...that will be your first human lesson. The next time I come here, you will eat a meal.” Ben didn’t entirely know what he was doing, but better he go into this blind than someone like Bashir. 

“Very well, Captain.” John quirked his eyebrows a bit, but made no comment. Nor did Kira or Odo, for that matter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey all! sorry this took so much time, I forgot to post chapter 3 and chapter 4 (coming next week) is super duper long.


	4. Pushing Limits

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> John peruses the station, gets in trouble, interrogates religion, and sees...something.

The food incident was a slight disaster. It turned out that when John said “I don’t need to eat” he meant “I can’t.” The whole thing ended with a dark stain on the table from when the man’s stomach rejected the gumbo, the burger, and then even the saltines that Sisko ordered from the replicator, and returned them as a deep black sludge.   
“I apologize Captain. But I did warn you.”

“I...suppose you did.” 

So instead of eating, they played chess together, and debated a bit of philosophy back and forth - apparently wherever John was from, they had Nietzche - and some science - apparently they also had a crazy system of physics that included magic - and some baseball - it was lucky he had knowledge of that. Ben also informed him of (some) going ons around the station, like Jadzia and Worf’s wedding.

Sisko didn’t trust him, not by a long shot. But at the same time he got the impression that whatever threat or hidden agenda John might have concealed, it wasn’t one that he could access at the moment. And for his part, John was taking to the ‘human lessons’ quite enthusiastically, specifically the idea of communication. He’d go on long monologues if unimpeded. A lesson Sisko wished he’d learned sooner.

Kira and Odo occasionally came by themselves. Sisko couldn’t exactly spend his entire day talking with John, he had a station to run. Unfortunately, neither could find quite as rich conversation ground. One session, John tried to win over the Major by studying up on the prophets, and attempting to engage her in debate. This ended in an hour long, rather loud exchange of words. 

“But if we are to believe the prophecies, and if we are to believe they came from the Prophets themselves directly through the orbs, then how did they not foresee and warn the occupation?”

“The prophecies given to us only apply to us, they never commented on the actions of outside forces on Bajor.”

“Then how is the Captain an Emissary? How did they predict his movements?”

“Maybe his destiny is so intertwined with Bajor that he is considered of our planet?”

This went on for a while, and neither Odo nor Sisko had any intention of stopping it and getting punched by Kira.

Bashir also made his returns, mostly to take blood tests or discuss John’s odd physiology with him. He notably declined to ever take back his chessboard. He also discussed art, science, and philosophy with John, clearly enjoying the reparte and debate. (Garak had seemed rather testy and almost - lonely last Sisko saw him).

Eventually, despite himself, Sisko saw fit to allow John some walking permission around the station. Key word some. He was to be accompanied by a security officer at all times, if not the Captain, or Odo, or at least Worf, who though just married a week previous to this, was still sufficiently terrifying in his marital bliss to keep an eye on John. The main instructions were as follows: do not let him near sensitive systems, do not let him leave your sight, and (and this was an unspoken instruction) do not let him near Jacob Sisko. Every time they passed by him on his way to get some coffee, or to conduct an interview, or to go up to the holosuite, Ben would quickly wave to his son, maybe give a hug if they were close enough, and pointedly not introduce him to John. 

“Is that your son, Captain?”

“Yes.” Ben replied, voice drenched in suspicion.

“Have you told him who I am? What I am?”

“Parts.” Jake had been curious about the man they brought on the station, Sisko had had a long day and needed to talk about it. 

“I see. Any reason you don’t want me talking to him?”

“None in particular, though if I’m honest I doubt your views would be a good influence.” 

“I suppose not.”  
\--  
Meanwhile, Jake was still curious. As was John. It followed that the son of someone like Ben Sisko would be as interesting to talk to as the man himself. And he was always starved for conversation. It happened that, luckily, one of his guards did have a weakness in the form of his wife, Jadzia. Many times as they were walking, Worf would see Jadzia walking to deliver the results of a scan, or take a quick break for lunch after her shift, and would maneuver himself and John over to wherever she was. John didn’t mind. Jadzia herself was incredibly interesting to talk to. In a fit of boredom when all of his ‘watchers’ were on shift, John had read the vast majority of the Starfleet database. The Trill seemed fascinating, with their multiple lifetimes. Nothing compared to his own, but still. She was vibrant and yet analytical, cold and warm at the same time. Very fun to talk to.

At one point, John saw Jake inside of Quark’s as Jadzia’s conversation with Worf had turned from work-related to just plain flirting as it usually did, even when Jadzia tried to include John in the conversation. He took the opportunity proposed by Worf’s blush to quickly dart into the bar and sit down next to Jake, who was having a coffee and talking to a boy in uniform on the other side of him. They were talking about some kind of game of marbles. 

“Pardon me, are you Jake Sisko?” Jake turned to him with a curious concern on his face, one which turned into a look of surprise.

“Yeah. Wait. Aren’t you the man that got brought aboard a week ago?”  
“Yes. My name is John. Pleasure to meet you.” John held out a hand, which Jake shook eagerly.

“Jake, are you sure you should be talking to him?” The boy on the other side asked. He looked like what the database described as a Ferengi. He also looked about twelve, but that might have just been from the wide eyed nervousness he seemed to exude. “Your dad probably wouldn’t be too thrilled.”

“It’s fine Nog.” Nog acquiesced but still looked nervous. 

 

“Pardon me, but what game were you two just talking about?” Jake’s eyes lit up by that, and he launched into an explanation.

“Oh Dom’Jot. It’s this game where-” Unfortunately, he was interrupted by the Ferengi at the bar. 

“Hello, and welcome to Quark’s!” He greeted John in a far-too-magnanimous voice. “Care to order a drink? We’ve got all the most fabulous ales and concoctions this side of-”

“No thank you. As you were saying?” John kept his answer flat. 

“Well maybe, you’d like to try out our Dabo tables, one of the girls would be happy to show you the ropes, and maybe even something more.” The Ferengi was being quite insistent now.

“I’m really not interested.” Again, flat answer, no chance to be ‘convinced.’

“If you’re not going to drink or gamble, then maybe you’d like to leave?” All magnanimity immediately dropped, replaced by a sour expression.

John was about to answer when Sisko marched up behind him and said in that calm-but-clearly-meant-to-intimidate voice. 

“John, what are you doing?”

“Trying to learn about Dom’Jot, Captain.” John gave his best impression of a sheepish smile.

“You can look it up on the computer, can’t you? No need to go soliciting explanations from random youths in bars?”

“Dad, come on.” Jake tried to reason, but to no avail.

“I trusted you to stay with your security detail, and this is what you do?”  
“I apologize. I was just so curious to see what the son of Captain Benjamin Sisko was like. I promise it will never happen again.”

“You’d better hope it doesn’t.” Out of the corner of his eye, John could see the Ferengi bartender with a smirk of utter shadenfreude.

John spent the next week in his room with limited visits by Sisko and the rest as punishment. 

\--

Luckily for John, humanity had learned a thing or two about forgiveness, and Jake had (somewhat) been able to influence his father’s decision. Soon enough he was back to his status as “wanderer under close supervision” though the Captain himself took on a more active role in said supervision barring any important war meetings. 

While they were on the Promenade, Sisko took the opportunity to make rounds and smile warmly at the Bajorans who approached him, making small talk about the surface before moving on. John had noticed in their walks that the Bajorans seemed to have high opinions of Sisko. Which, John supposed, made sense if he were an Emissary.

“Could you explain something for me, Captain?” He asked when the curiosity overtook.

“Yes, John?” Sisko replied, almost seeming defensive.

“What exactly are the duties of an Emissary?”

“The Bajorans regard me as an inbetween between them and the prophets, or the beings within the wormhole. I made contact with said prophets shortly after coming to the station, and said regard has mostly held since. Mostly I give blessings, or wish good fortunes for those who ask for them, as dictated by Bajoran traditions. Occasionally the prophets will give me a vision, or communicate with me.” 

“So you’re held in that high regard? That seems quite advantageous to your stay here.” and that was too far. John knew this, but he also knew that if he didn’t make Sisko defensive, he would never explain further. He was much harder to interrogate than those John had experience with. 

“It’s not like that. In fact, my superiors dislike the fact that I even engage with the Bajorans on this level, or play into their interpretation of the wormhole. I don’t do this for such...callous reasons.” In the past few weeks, John had learned to distinguish the tone of voice Sisko used when he was in moral outrage. Or maybe when he had to remember to be morally outraged. Either way, it meant a speech. A long one.

“Then why do you?” Sisko stopped short at that question, struggling to answer. John knew Sisko wasn’t so callous as to indulge the Emissary image for strategic benefit. He was a good man, and probably took seriously his duty to Bajor. Probably thought this was his purpose in life. But that was exactly why he asked. John had known and pitied many good men over the course of his life. 

Luckily for Sisko, however, he never ended up having to answer. Just as John was about to go into his own morally outraged speech, he got a faraway look in his eye, and went even paler than usual. 

“I-John, are you alright? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” 

In a way John had. Standing in the doorway of the temple was a short, stout dwarf with a beard full of flowers and a red jacket. He looked confused, surprised, and as though something was going wrong, which it was. 

“Merle?” Was the last thing John said before Sisko put a hand on his shoulder, not seeing the dwarf, and the Hunger collapsed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> me? updating a week after the last? it's more likely than you think (but not much lol.) Thanks dim, for beta-ing and suggesting the title of this chapter be 'expansion' and then realizing why that would be a bad idea.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey so I'm starting a new and absolutely terrible crossover fic. I genuinely don't know how this happened. Thanks to my faithful beta, Dim_shim, for reading this mess and coming up with hc's to help it along.


End file.
